1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to radio communications. More specifically, the invention provides a system and method for both voice-to-voice and computer-to-computer communication using a wireless link to the public telephone network.
2. Description of the Related Art
For decades, people have been using the public telephone system for voice communications. Traditionally, people have used telephones comprising a handset attached by a cord to a dialing unit. Such telephones connect to the telephone system with a telephone line plugged into the telephone at one end and to a telephone jack (typically wired into a wall) at the other end. To make telephone calls using these telephones, a person generally must stay within a few feet of a telephone jack and cannot roam about freely while conversing on the telephone.
Existing radio-based wireless telephone systems comprising a handset and a base now provide a wireless link to the telephone system. The handset of a wireless telephone system samples and encodes the voice signals generated by a person talking into the handset, and transmits the encoded voice signals to the base, which decodes the voice signals and transmits the decoded voice signals to the telephone system. Radio transceivers in both the handset and base exchange encoded voice signals. Because the wireless handset does not have or need a cord attached to the base, a person can roam about while conversing over the telephone network and need not remain within a few feet of telephone jack. Such handset and base systems have become relatively common in households across the United States.
In addition to telephones, however, people now demand computers connected to the public telephone network. In just the last few years, the number of people using computers to engage in data communications over the public telephone system has increased from merely a few hundred thousand to well into the tens of millions. With the astronomical rise in the usage and popularity of the Internet and World Wide Web, the number of people connecting computers to the public telephone system is growing at a feverish pace.
Computers use modems to communicate with other computers over the telephone system, and each modem generally requires a connection to a telephone line. Thus, people desiring to connect their computers to a telephone line must now locate the computer near a telephone jack in the lab, home or office, and run a telephone line from the telephone jack to the modem connected to the computer. Users now must make a choice whether to connect a telephone or a computer to a telephone jack.